The Prince Before The Day
by Vegebulluv
Summary: A story taking place before Vegeta is given to Frieza hope that you guys enjoy reading it. I do not own dbz or any characters :D:D :D.
1. returning home

Chapter 1- Returning Home

after a long week everything on the planet yaderaje was finish the queen and a handful of others were now returning to planet Vegeta to inform the king of their progress. In the pod with the Queen on her lap was resting her son vegeta. It was his first mission and he did excellent on it. She looked down at him with her soft black eyes and slightly touched his bangs. She smiled looking down at her son and couldn't help but feel proud of how strong he is and becoming no doubt he will make an excellent king of the planet someday. As they started to close in on the planet Vegeta she couldn't help but feel excited to tell the king of his progress and how he helped with defeating the inhabitants on the planet her eyes beaming with excitement as they finally landed on the planet in front of the palace.

"Vegeta" she gently shook his shoulder while saying his name

In response he mumbled something that she could not understand opening his eyes a little before closing them before slightly snoring again. At this she let out a light giggle before opening her pod.

"Afternoon milady do you require assistance?" A young maid with shoulder length black hair approached the queen's space pod.

"Well could you hold my son so I can get out of this pod?" She smiled and added "He's really knocked out cold after the mission"

"Oh of course ma'am" Brolina held both hands out as the queen handed him to her holding him as if he was a small baby and then asked "Would you like me to take him to his room my queen?"

Tomalia had finally pulled herself out of the pod and then replied "No that's ok Brolina I'll take them myself" she then reached for her son back and Brolina placed him into her arms

"Is king Vegeta here right now?" Tomalia asked eagerly

"He is but he's in meeting right now probably for another three hours but if it's urgent I can tell him you need" Brolina told her

"No its something that can wait for later thanks for your help" she said with a huge smile

"No problem please don't hesitate to ask" Brolina told the queen as she began walking away

"Thank you Brolina you've been such good help honestly I appreciate it, I shall see you later" Tomalia responded.

the queen made herself down the halls full of rooms before she finally made it to her son's bedroom. His room was pretty big in the room was a medium size bed with dark blue covers. There was also a closet full of clothes for training along with night clothes and clothes used for special events.

Tomalia laid the prince on top of his covers and walked over to his closet, looked for his sleep wear, and then she made her way back to his bed

"Hey Vegeta you slept long enough it's time for you to wake up" she told him softly

he muttered something in his sleep but did not wake up

"VEGETA!" she yelled and he finally woke up

He opened his eyes wide fast before he rolled off and fell off the bed with a loud thud

"owie" vegeta whined and rubbed the back of his head "was it really necessary for you to yell I heared you the first time" he said as he continued to rub his head

"oh so you were ignoring me now, now little Veggie that's no way to treat your mother" She smiled when she used the nickname that he hated

Vegeta shot his mother a glare before sitting and walking to the other side of his bed and giving his mother his back

she just giggled and told him "oh come on sweetie you and me both know that you can't stay mad at me for long" and started hugging him from behind

He slightly blushed and smiled and turned around in her arms to hug him "Yeah you're right I can't. How are you always right about me?

"well you a part of me and I know you so well because I've been with you all your life" she smiled

" Yeah I know that but-" before he could continue with his statement she cut him off

"you want to know what else I know about you?" she questioned him

"what? tell me"

" I know that you need to get cleaned up and ready for dinner so that you can go to sleep because you've got a big day tomorrow" she told him sweetly

"oh yeah I almost forgot I finally get to do some sparing with commander Nappa tomorrow oh I can't wait I'm going to show him just how strong I am" he was so excited that he grabbed his clothes and ran to the bathroom

Tomalia started walking towards the bathroom "I'm sure he can't wait to see it sweetie"

when she made it to the bathroom he was starting to undress himself and she started his bathwater and once the temperature was right she plugged it up and the tub started filling up with water.

she turned around and found him struggling to take off his spandex so she walked over to him and helped him

"I don't need your help mother I can do it by myself" he said annoyed as she finished pulling off his clothes

"well I helped you anyway so deal with it" she laughed at him and went back to the tub to turn the water off "Hey how about I let you shampoo your own hair how does that sound? hmmm..." she negotiated

he thought a little before he answered "fine...but that means I get to do everything from putting it on to washing it off" he said glaring at her

"ok, ok understood now get in this tub before the water gets cold" She said as she pointed towards the tub

He gave a long sigh before he walked to the tub

Sometime after his bath and after dinner vegeta and his mother were back in his on his bed. she had him tucked in bed and was watching him finish up his reading before he finally went to sleep. just as she was about to turn off the light and leave his bathroom he sat up in his bed.

"Hey you lay back down and go back to sleep" she said quietly

"you didn't say goodnight mother"

"oh! goodnight vegeta I love you" she walked over to him and gave him a hug and kiss

"that's better" he chuckled as he looked at the look on her face and quickly said "goodnight mother I love you you too" he kissed her cheek and hugged her

he then laid down and she tucked him back in to bed and he feel back to sleep

she rubbed his hair then walked to the door and then closed it and went to her room


	2. mornings like these

Chapter Two- An Ok Morning

The Prince was just starting to eat on is breakfast when both of his parents walked into the kitchen with satisfied smiles on their faces. Vegeta never liked that look and he was beginning to lose his appetite.

"you guys have that look do you guys always have that look when you don't see each other for awhile? It kind of creeps me out" He said in a worried tone

His mother just giggled as she walked over to kiss him on the cheek while his father took a seat beside him at the large at the large table he chuckled as he put his hand on hi sons shoulders.

"you'll understand it better when you get older son I promise" the king said patting his son on the back. He then looked over to Tomalia "Won't he honey?" he said slyly

Tomalia blushed slightly turned away and looked for something in the fridge

while slightly gagging to himself Vegeta then noticed his mothers attire. She was wearing battle clothes and had her normally mid black length hair in a ponytail. He then had to ask her to know the answer to what he thought.

"Hey mother what are you going to be doing today?"

"Well I've got another mission today Vegeta, I'll be gone for three days at the most" she informed him

"oooh can I please go Mother? Please? I like going on missions with you I have fun with you!" he said in his best pleading voice with eyes to match

She was almost tempted to say yes to him. Yes he just knew what he had to do so he could get what he wanted. However, with the information she got on the planet the inhabitants were really tough and she wasn't even sure she would come back much less drag her son to the planet. Besides he still had a lot to learn about had to tell him no matter how disappointed he would be with her response.

She walked over to him and rubbed his hair "as much as I would love to take you with me I just can't the people who reside on the planet I fear is too much for you to handle so I can't let you come" she said being honest

Vegeta couldn't believe what his ears had just heard. Both of his parents of all people knew that he had been born with one of the highest fighting power. and not only had his mother ignored his pleading face but she had also said that they were too much for him too handle. He felt that he couldn't let that statement go with just an 'ok' and be done with it.

He got up out of his seat and kicked it down earning a flinch from his mother and a stare from his father. His father remained seated but kept a close eye on his son and his wife. glaring at his mother he started to yell at her "But that's not fair if anyone should be going to do the mission it should be me I'm way stronger than you and anyone on this planet. Hell I'll probably be better by myself than with anyone else by my side"

Tomalia was taken aback by the tone of his voice and the fact that he said a swear word. She saw that his face was beginning to turn red from anger. She was about to say something when she saw her husband stand up and approached their son.

King Vegeta had let his son have his little moments and was beginning to get angry at the fact that his mother had taken no form of disciplinary action towards him. He decided that it was time for him to step in and discipline the prince because no matter how many times he tried to tell her because the prince knew not to act like that towards him.

Vegeta was finally aware of his father's presence when he noticed him standing above him. He had no time to react when his father pulled him up by his shirt "Now you look here vegeta you may be strong for someone your age but that still doesn't excuse the fact that you are a child and that that's your mother. You don't throw tantrum fits anytime you don't get your way. We've taught you to respect those who are older than you are and we expect you to follow them" he shook him a little as he scolded him "do you understand me?" And with that he dropped him to the ground onto his hands and knees

Tomalia really wanted to step in but she didn't know what to one hand she wanted the king to stop with the way he was handling their son on the other hand she wanted her son to learn that her "no's" were final with no back talk from him. She decided she would talk to them both separately later and just let the king handle him.

"Do you understand me Vegeta?" King vegeta said in a firm voice

Without looking up from the ground he nodded his head

" you have a mouth to speak and I want you to use it" the king demanded " do you understand me?" He asked him the same question

Still without looking up in a small voice he said "yes sir" the king was not pleased with his response

"You have eyes to look at people when talking to them...if you can give them eye contact when disrespecting them you can do when respecting them" the king continued to lecture him " do you understand me?"

This time giving him eye contact and in confidence he said "yes sir I understand you"

Now satisfide with his answer he looked over to Tomalia and then turned his attention back to Vegeta "now you go over there and apologize to your mother right now" he told him

Without missing a beat the prince walked over to his mother giving her eye contact " I'm sorry for disrespecting you mother and saying a swear word while speaking to you can you forgive me?"

Tomalia looked down at her son and smiled at him and she bent down to his eye level and rubbed his hair and kissed him " of course I can sweetie just make sure that you don't say words like that ever again ok "

"Yes ma'am " he said

"Good now head on to your room and brush your teeth so you can go spar with Nappa alright" she said patting him on the shoulder

"Ok mother" and with that he ran to do what he was told

After he was gone she turned her attention to her husband "you know you could've handled him a little bit better without resorting to physically putting your hands on him he is still a child" she calmly told him

He grunted "a spoiled child at that. He needs to learn that he can't let his temper get the best him every time that he can't have his way. That's why he tries to run over you but he knows not to do it with me"

"You know talking has the same benefits you should talk to him about it give it a try" she urged him

"Fine I'll try it but you also need to start disciplining him more too so he doesn't disrespect you" he countered

"Ok I'll handle that when I get back" she assured him "so three days I'm going to miss the both of you"

"Oh yeah" he turned to her

"Yep I really wish we could do more missions together like the good old days" she said

"Maybe the next one " he said leaning in a kissing her lips

" FatherI'm rea-" vegeta paused as he walked back into the kitchen seeing his parents he decided to make his presence known by clearing his throat loud enough for them to both hear

They both turned around to look at their son until he said "ummm whenever you guys are done with this" he motioned towards them " I'll be in my room waiting ok" he then made his akward exit

Both of his parents just looked at each other and laughed


	3. Thinking and Knowing

Chapter 3- thinking and knowing

"Bye Mother see you when you get back" the prince waved to her space pod as it left the planet

The king was watching too and realized that he had lots of work to do today so he called to his son " come vegeta I have lots of work to do today you need to go train with Nappa"

Vegeta took one last look to the sky before he sighed and turned around towards his father and walked towards him "yes sir" he said irritably

They then reentered the palace and started to head towards the training facilities they both walked in silence until the king broke it

"So how's your training coming along "

"Good enough to go on missions obviously" he said with attitude

The King just chuckled. he knew that his son had not expected that action when he looked up at him with a confused look

" so you must still be upset about how I handled you this morning?"

"no sir"

"then what's with the attitude?"

"I want to know just how strong I am, and I know that you and mother both tell me that I'm really strong but how will **I know** if I can't go on more missions? preferably on my own" he sadly reliedl

The king just stared at him for a good minute without saying a word just analyzing his sons words. He was understanding what he was saying but couldn't believe that he had said it. He was snapped out of his trance when Nappa walked up to him and saluted.

"good morning sir" Nappa said. he then looked to the prince "Good morning prince Vegeta"

"Morning Nappa are we going to be doing some training today?" his mood changed in a snap now excited

"course we are why not you go ahead and go inside and I'll be in their in a minute ok" Nappa instructed him

"Yes sir" he said and then ran towards the room

Nappa then turned towards the KIng "sir is everything alright?" Concern in his voice

"Yeah just having many busy days is all" his replied came

"Let me guess he's still trying to persuade you" Nappa said as a matter a factly

The king looked around quickly to make sure that no one was around at this time. He saw that people were starting to come in to start training.

We'll talk about this later after you're done with everything" he told him

Alright" he then turned around after hearing little footsteps come up from behind

"Nappa lets go...NOW!" The prince demanded

"Alright " Nappa turned to follow him and then said to the king "see you later skr" he said with a salute

The king then headed towards the throne room

After about ten minutes of practicing punch combinations vegeta just stopped all together and looked up at Nappa

Why'd you stop prince vegeta" Nappa questioned

He stood there thinking about it than looked up at to Nappa and let out a long sigh before speaking

"Nappa I'm strong right?"

"Course you are according to the records you have one of the highest power levels we charted in history and for your age too"

" well yeah, I mean that's what everyone tells me but how am I supposed to know that myself if I'm not able to go on more missions "

"Well Vegeta to understand that you've got to know the difference between physical strength and mental strength"

Vegeta thought about it for a moment before asking Nappa

"Well what's that gotta do with me Nappa?"

"Ok sit down and I'll explain it to you"

Vegeta sat down and crossed his legs looking at Nappa so he could continue on

"Ok so first tell me what you know about physical strength and mental strength"

"Having physical strength means that you have the abilities to take on any challenges"

"Ok well your got it just a little but how do you get physical strength"

"Hmmmm..."

Nappa could see that he was stuck so he continued

"People get physical strength through training which is why we practice together get it"

" yeah but even though i'm physically strong I still can't go on missions"

" now that bringas us to mental strength what does it mean to you"

"I know this one being mentally strong means knowing what to expect out of a battle which is either victory or defeat right"

"See your just scraping the surface of mental strength. See it takes a lot of self devotion on a goal and knowing what you can and can't handle it also means you want to work on improvement for yourself you get it"

"I think so but how do you get mentally strong?"

"Knowing your limits and when you can and can't do something"

"See I know what my limits are but when you're aquiring mental strength don't you have to experience more battles?"

"Not necessarily see it like this who knows more a child or an adult?"

"An adult theyve lived longer and have more patience about lots of things and they know more"

"Right very good know put what you learned about physical and mental strength so you can answer your question about why you can't go on more missions"

Vegeta thought about everything for a long minute thinking about everything that Nappa told him and he was starting to get it.

"Ok so even though I can physically handle challenges I still don't know mentally enough about fighting so say I get a really tough challenger and it could result in the end of me where as an adult would know more and make a swift escape and fight again me being a child I can't see it like that so I'll just keep on fighting until I win. So I can't go on missions because I'm still learning more and more about my limitations and what I can handle right?"

"Great you got it" they both stood up and Nappa patted him on the shoulder "Someday your gonna make an excellent king and a warrior"

Vegeta said nothing he just smiled at him and got Into a fighting stance and he motioned for Nappa to do the same. Once he did Vegeta launched himself towards him and they began to go all out

Meanwhile ...

King Vegeta sat in his chair in the throne room waiting for progress on the planet Tazba. He had given Frieza an estimate of seven . Three days to get to the planet, and three days to take it over and one more day to make sure that all the inhabitants Were completely gone and he had just barley accepted those terms.

Torn was on the left side of the king Vegeta standing at attention when the door suddenly opened. In his half ship floated in the pink tyrant with cold red eyes. On his left was the oversized pink monster with spikes on his face named dodoria. And on his left was the tall teal skinned man with his green hair and yellow eyes his name was zarbon.

"Lord Frieza" king vegeta stood up and bowed and everyone else followed

"Well I must say king Vegeta you have all your people so well disciplined and obedient when it comes down to their Lord that's a good thing" he chuckled darkly

"Thank you lord Frieza" he said " what brings you here today Lord Frieza?"

"I'm glad you ask Vegeta , see since you pledged you allingence to my empire and know doubt you guys are pretty strong warriors. But today I'm here just looking for recruitments for my army" he replied in a calm voice

"Recruitments?" He said in a shocked voice

King Vegeta couldn't believe what he had just heard. Frieza has an army full of some of the best warriors n the universe even stronger than some of his elites and yet he wanted one of his people. King Vegeta did not like where this was going because he knew which sayian the tyrant wanted.

After a particular day during training the king had been showing Freiza and his guards around the palace when they made it to one of the training rooms. At that particular training room there was a crowd of people all around watching two people sparing with each other. Once they made it over to the crowd frieza, Zarbon, and Dodoria had turned on their scouters to read the battle power of the bigger one and then moved on too the smaller one. After reading the smaller one Frieza gave a wicked grin and him and his guards just left. And now today they were back for the "recruitment" they Frieza wanted...his own son.

"I take it that you know who I want but I like to make sure I'm in an agreement with people so I'll be back in two days time to make sure you are agree with this decision and knowing you, you'll make the right decision because your planets exictance depends on your choice you make and I know that you'll make the right choice" and with that Frieza turned around to make his exit with Zarbon and Dodoria both following

"Yes Lord Frieza" King Vegeta finally said. He knew that he would have to do it. He knew that he would betray his sons trust and possibly ruin his life because of it but he had to it was either one life or hundreds. Times like these he wished that he wasn't king of the planet with little to no freedom. He would have to think more about the topic though he already knew the choice that he would make.

A/N- Review let me know what you thought about this chapter and what I could've done to make it better thanks for reading. Chapter 4 should be up next week or so if I don't get too much work lol :D


	4. Conflicting Emotions

Chapter 4-Conflicting Emotions

A/N-I do not own dbz or any characters. For dialogue in this story I used the subtitles from episode 78 of dbz. Anyway I hope that you enjoy the story and reveiw :D:D:D:D

it was late in the afternoon when Nappa and Vegeta finally finished their training. Nappa had carried the worn out prince back to his room and laid him down on his bed. Afterwards Nappa turned to head towards the room to so he could talk to the King. Once Nappa entered the room and the King sitting in his throne looking deep in thought. Nappa saluted then said something gain the Kings attention.

"Afternoon King Vegeta sir"

"Afternoon Nappa" the king looked up at him and towards everyone else in the room " you all may leave now I must discuss with Nappa about something private"

At his word everyone turned to leave the throne room. Once they were sure everyone was out of hearing distance Nappa waited for the king to talk first. A long silence in the room he finally spoke

"I've been making plans Nappa" He stated bluntly

" plans about what exactly Sir?"

"The Prince, Frieza is asking for him." Nappa had a shocked look on his face after hearing that news. _Why out of everyone on planet vegeta would Frieza just single out a five year old child. A child could not serve any purpose in an army much less Frieza's army. Vegeta had only been on one mission and even then he went with at most four or five others. Nappa thought that Frieza would be better off with having a more experienced fighter perhaps someone older but no he wanted vegeta._ Nappa couldn't wrap his mind around the whole situation.

 _"What are you planning on doing about it sir?"_

"Frieza _has made it quite clear that it's either the prince or everyone else on the planet so I know what I have to do"_

 _"So you're going to give him the prince?" Nappa knew the answer to the question but felt the need to ask him anyways_

 _"Yes Nappa, I can't risk the lives of everyone else on the planet just for the prince. No doubt about it if I did refuse his demand he would defiently destroy the planet. He's done it to so many others what would this one mean to him" The king was frustrated that Nappa would ask such a question_

 _"Of course he wouldn't sir, please continue on with your plan"_

 _"Nappa what i'm going to tell you about needs to stay strictly confindential you got it not even the queen should know about it you got that" Nappa was all ears at this if he didn't even want the queen to know about it. Nappa was prepared to know what it was and if he was required to be a part of it he would follow through with it loyally._

 _"Of course sir just between us"_

 _At Nappa's assurance King Vegeta told Nappa about the plan he had been coming up with and how he should carry it out. Nappa stood in his spot quietly listening to the plan and what was his role in the plan. He didn't feel it was right but he wouldn't tell the king that. The king would think that he was less of him knowing that Nappa was letting his attachment to the prince get in the way of following his duty to the king which came first_

* * *

 _The Next two days went by and true to his word Nappa to the King's knowledge had not said a word to anyone about the plan he had told him. This Morning the king decided to sit in on a training session since he didn't have the meeting with the tyrant until later. Nappa had found another person for Vegeta to spar with an eleven year old named Raditz who was just about on par with him though his strength being a little bit lower than the prince. They were all outside in the back in a large grassy area while Raditz and Vegeta were throwing punches at each other. Vegeta had been going all out in the presence of his father until He saw someone in the corner of his eye._

 _"Mother!" He stopped his punches so fast that Raditz had punched him in the face and fell hard to the ground "oh shit"_

 _"Hey watch your mouth...both your parents are present" the king told him from his spot_

 _"Sorry father" vegeta apologized as came Raditz over and helped him up_

 _"You shouldn't let yourself get so easily distracted prince Vegeta always stay alert" Raditz lectured him_

 _"Yeah I know that gosh" he said agitated then looked over at his mother "hey mom how was your mission" he asked walking over to her_

 _"Easier than I expected i'll tell you that much but I rather want to know where you've learned such words from" she stared at him_

 _"Ummm...that word slipped I promise and I won't say it again" he responded quickly hoping that wpuld be enough to end the discussion_

 _Raditz snorted at his comment and under his breath he mumbled "Yeah apparently you let those words slip out alot"_

 _"Shut up Raditz you say them too" vegeta snapped at him and then looked back at his mothers serious gaze_

 _"Well where have you both heard those types of words from, cause you shouldn't be saying them either Raditz"_

 _"Nappa!" Both Vegeta and Raditz said and pointed towards him "and I've heard father say them a couple of times too on more than one occasion" Vegeta added_

 _Tomalia let out a giggle "I leave for two days and I come back and here you are saying all types of words" then she became serious "If I ever hear such language come out of your mouth again you won't like what I would do to you understand?"_

 _"Yes ma'am I understand" he told his mother_

 _"Good princes should never use such languages" she looked over to see Raditz snickering quietly then turned to Nappa. "Nappa be sure to notify his guardians about the language he's been using as well" she informed him ,she also noticed that Raditz had stopped his snickering and looked up at her in shock._

 _"Of course" Nappa said_

 _"Damm- I mean Dangit seriously?" Raditz said correcting himself_

 _"Ok it's time for the both of you to get back to sparring we're not done yet" Nappa said to both Raditz and Vegeta_

 _"Alright" they both said eager to spar again_

 _"Stay Alert Vegeta." The king yelled towards his son_

 _" yes sir" Vegeta said as he got into a fighting stance and both of them began their fighting again_

 _Tomalia then went over to where the King and Nappa where standing watching both of them sparring in silence. " So how was everything while I was away besides the language I've been hearing"_

 _"Good" the king responded_

 _"Yes everything was well while you were away" Nappa added_

 _"That's great did Frieza come by any while I was away" she asked them and noticed that they took a little while to answer the question_

 _"Yeah" King Vegeta told her "what" he asked her when she looked at him_

 _"Are you going to tell me about it?" She asked him. Tomailia thought he was acting strange because anyhtime he had a meeting with Frieza he would tell her about it ._

 _"Later" he simply said and then he got up to go back inside. He looked at Nappa who had his back turned to him watching the sparring match._

 _"I just asked because he just arrived no more than five minutes ago I thought he only comes here every three weeks." Tomalia explained_

 _"Lord Frieza's here?" The king said loudly in shock. Everyone then turned to look at him and once again Vegeta recieved a punch to his face for gettimg distracted And falling back down on the ground._

 _"Stay alert Vegeta"Nappa yelled towards him "back into your fighting stance"_

 _King Vegeta made his way to the throne room to meet with Frieza in hopes that he haden't been waiting to long for his presence. Tomalia noticed this and know had good suspicion that something had transpired while she had been away. She went over to Nappa and both of them resumed watching both the boys spar with each other._

 _"So you know anything about this why I was gone for two days?" She questioned Nappa_

 _"Not anymore than you know my Queen." Nappa told her_

 _Tomalia knew she was taking a risk asking Nappa anything because once he was told something by the king it was hard to get him to tell her anything. She turned arpund and headed back into the castle and turned around to Nappa._

 _"You know I'll find out what it is eventually Nappa and I think I kind of got an idea about what's going on by the way the king is acting, oh and one more thing Frieza's not even here yet" Tomalia said and noticed Nappa flinched at her words._

* * *

 _King sat in his throne room and waited for anything to happen. He found out that Frieza had not even came yet and he knew that Tomalia was now suspicious by the way he had acted outside so he was coming up with a resonable explanation for his was deep in thought when his messenger came in and interrupted his train of thought by saying something about planet Tazba._

 _"What's this? You say the occupation of planet Tazba is still not complete?" King Vegeta questioned the messenger to make sure he had heard him right._

 _"Yes sir, The Tazbians resistence is proving tougher than we anticipated. The say it will take another three days to complete the occupation." The messenger said completing his report._

 _"Three more days!?" King Vegeta had knew he should've taken on this assignment himself if he had the planet would've been occupied by now._

 _"Yes sir, My humblest apologies" The messenger quickly said._

 _The King had lost his temper at this point. "Why you! Have you forgotten that we promised Frieza the planet by tomorrow?" He yelled angrily at him._

 _The messenger snapped his head up while still remaining on one knee bowed "No I would never do such a thing. However, the full moon on Tazba will not appear for three more days" after saying this he lowered his head once again._

 _The king didn't want to hear nothing else that the meesenger had to say as he stood up."Be gone" he said and he saw the shocked look on his face when he didn't leave his presence immediantly. "Be gone! And let nothing remain." He raised his arm and aimed toward the messenger firing a ki blast towards him. The messenger screamed and was sent flyhing out of the other sayains in the room remained completely at king was about to sit down until he heard someone enter the left side of his throne room laughing knew who it belonged to._

 _"As barbaric as always I see. I did not mind if it took another three days. You've done something unfortunate here." Frieza said smiling as he looked over at the area where the messenger was sent flying. Frieza made his way over to the kings throne and as the king stepped aside he sat diown in it and got down to the real reason why he had came."Nonetheless, I came to speak about your son. When do you intend to bring him to me?"_

 _Vegeta flinched at his words "well that is..." He started looking for the right words but, before he could continue the Tyrant interrupted him._

 _"I know! You will please bring him in three days time along with your annoucement of the successful occupation of planet Tazba." He said getting up from the throne starting to the right side to exit the room as he taughtengly added "You need not worey that I will not pamper him" Frieza left laughing as coldly as he had came._

 _Torn, who had been standing in slience as both Vegeta and Frieza conversated felt the need to step in as they talked about the prince in such a matter of giving him away didn't sit well with him. Torn thought that King must be planning something because he knew the king would fight for his slowly made his way over to the Kings side to ask him what he was wanting to know. "King Vegeta are you really going to deliver the Prince to Frieza?"_

 _"Yeah." The king gave a blunt answer._

 _"But won't you be risking the princes life?" Torn asked while trying not to speak out of term. Though he was showing attachment towards the prince. Torn was very fond of him and he would give his life for him,he knew how strong the prince was and couldn't even began to fathom how he would become if under the tyrants care._

 _"I'm not concered about things such as my son's life" The King said lying to himself "What I find unbearable is his attitude! He has the mistaken idea that we sayains are his slaves or something!"_

 _Torn had made up in his mind that he would try to talk to the king later about his decision instead of being in the room along with that didn't work he would ask the queen to talk to him without, letting her know the reason. He had a feeling the queen didn't know about the situation because if she had she would've made an appearance in the room. If the queen didn't know the kimg probably didn't want her too so Torn wouldn't be the one to tell her but he could tell her indirectly."Yes King Vegeta"_

 _"Curse you Frieza, Someday we'll teach you a lesson" Vegeta said aloud._

 _Later on Zorn tried to convince the king to change his opinion but failed in doing so. The king didn't want to speak anymore about the topic and dismissed him. Torn felt that if he didn't let the subject go he would end up like the messenger earlier so he left it alone. He found the Queen and told her that she should have a talk with him later because he seemed frustrated about things lately. When Tomalia questioned him if he knew anything about it he had told her he wasen't sure, though he could tell she wasen't believiing him so he just let it be. Torn knew that the Queen would be the last person that could change his mind and that was really pushing it._

 _Tomalia got all the comfirmation she needed when Torn told her that the king was acting strange for a few days now and that she should talk to he didn't go into detail as to why he was acting strange and that made her wonder even more but didn't surprise her because just like Nappa, he wouldn't tell her anything about it. Tomalia knew it was a longshot asking her son if he had knew anything but she had to try to see if he sat down next to him as he sat up in his bed._

 _" So Zorn says your fathers been acting strange lately do you know anything about why he has?" She asked him_

 _"No ma'am not at all" he told her " will he be ok?"_

 _"That's ok I'll find out"she reassured him "what you want me to tell you tonight?" She asked him_

 _"Tell me about the super sayain again, I love that one"Vegeta said to her._

 _After the Prince had finally went to sleep she returned to her room and got ready for the night. After getting out the bathroom she saw the king laying down on the bed._

 _"So how have you been feeling lately?"she asked him_

 _"Great" he responded_

 _"Zorn says different you want to tell me about it?"_

 _Vegeta shot up at this "what did he say?"he questioned_

 _"All he says is since Frieza showed up that you've been acting strange is wants me to talk to you" She said as she laid down beside him in the bed._

 _The King was debating if he should tell her anyfhing now. There was no telling how much Zorn had already told her about the situation. He thought that maybe he could get her to understand the choice that he has she didn't though, what would she do or even say to knew her well enough to know that she would fight for what she felt she needed to. There was only one way to find out now or never._

 _"Well Frieza has asked for-" The king started but was interrupted bythe door slowly opening and closing just as slowly. Both the king and queen looked over to see the prince enter the room and walked over to the bed, crawled inbetween them._

 _"I couldn't sleep so maybe I will be while in here" Vegeta answered as he saw the look on both of his parents confused look. He made himself comfortable by climbing under the covers and closed his eyes. He sighed contently "yeah much better I can already feel sleep coming to you guys lay down and go to sleep"_

 _The King turned his back towards the Queen and closed his eyes. He was so close to telling her everything that happened while she was gone. From this point on he decided he wouldn't tell her had decided that she would find out tomorrow later while they were that she laid down and went to sleep too._


	5. The Time Has Come

Authors Note: Last chapter of this story. I'd love to thank my beta reader Over8000 for helping me to make this chapter :D. Enjoy the story and leave a comment if you'd like.

Chapter 5 - The Time Has Come

 _A loud knock came from outside the king's bedroom, and woke the King. King Vegeta sat up, got out of bed and started towards the door. Before he reached it, a Ki blast broke it down. The King deflected the attack. The blast made a hole in the wall and startled both Tomalia and the Prince awake. Tomalia jumped up and took a fighting stance, with the Prince by her side._

 _All three of them looked at the door and stared as they watched Frieza and his two henchman walk in with evil smiles on their faces. The King didn't know what was going on; surely it hadn't been three days already, had it? He wasn't sure what to think as he glanced over at his wife and son, and then back to the tyrant as he started to speak._

 _"You must have thought that I've forgotten about our little agreement, haven't you," Frieza stated with a voice of dispassion. "How unfortunate for you that I had to come here myself to claim what I demanded." He started to walk towards the Queen and Prince._

 _"What are you talking about? You didn't demand anything from us at all," Tomalia replied as she placed herself in front of the Prince and clenched her fists tighter._

 _"Not just 'anything' my dear, but someone," Frieza said as he eyed the young prince standing behind the Queen. He noticed the shocked and confused looks on both of the Saiyans' faces."Isn't that right, King Vegeta," he added. When the tyrant turned to glance at the King, both the Queen and Prince looked over at him as well._

 _"Liar! He would never promise you anything like that," Tomalia snapped, and glared at Frieza while taking two steps back. She nudged Prince Vegeta along to do the same as the tyrant continued his advance towards them. Behind her, the Prince grunted in agreement as he looked into Frieza's eyes._

 _"Oh, but he did; he'll tell you himself." He stopped moving forward. "Go on, Vegeta, tell them." As Frieza urged him on, King Vegeta looked down to the ground and without qualms nodded his head. Expressions of betrayal at his confession showed on both Tomalia and his son's faces._

 _Without another thought, Tomalia flew towards Frieza, ready to strike him in his face. Zarbon flashed in front of Frieza and punched her in the gut. She screamed out in pain as she fell down on her knees and held onto her stomach._

 _"Mother!" Vegeta howled as he flew towards her._

 _Out of nowhere Dodoria appeared in front of Vegeta. Vegeta ran smack into his body and fell on the ground due to the impact. He looked up to see Dodoria grinning down at him. "Where do you think you're going, kid?" he chuckled darkly._

 _Vegeta formed Ki attacks in both his hands as he prepared to blast his enemy out of the way. Dodoria was too quick though; when he kneed the Prince into the wall, he fell on the floor with a thud. Seeing this, Tomalia desperately tried to crawl over to him. She didn't make it very far before she felt Zarbon's foot on her back. She looked up over her shoulder and saw him aim his hand towards her, forming a blast and laughing evilly. Tomalia looked over to the King with a pleading look in her eyes._

 _It was the last look both the King and Prince saw before she was killed, leaving nothing but a body shaped mark where she once was. Tears streaming down his face, the prince shouted as he froze in place, and tightened his fists. "Mother!" He started to back away when both Zarbon and Dodoria towered over him._

 _"Now for the kid," Frieza told them._

 _Vegeta was backed against the wall and even though his mother hadn't fared so well he looked over to his father. "Help me please, Father!" Vegeta called out. King Vegeta just looked away when he heard the terrified screams and begging of his child._

King Vegeta shot straight up in his bed with cold sweat running down his back and face. He looked over and saw his son sleeping soundly. Tomalia, feeling the King sit up all of a sudden, sat up just as fast. Tomalia looked down at her son and made sure that he was still asleep. She then turned and faced her husband. She rubbed her eyes and looked at him.

"What's the matter with you," she asked while letting out a yawn.

"You're okay," the King said, looked at her, and then to his son. "He's okay too," he confirmed while rubbing a hand through his bangs.

"Of course we are. Why wouldn't we be," she questioned. "Are you okay?"

"Yes I am," he told her. He laid back down, turned around and gave her his back.

"Not with the way you just woke. Now, what's the matter with you?" Tomalia raised her voice and restated her earlier question, but kept it low enough so she wouldn't disturb the Prince.

"It's nothing, Tomalia! Now go back to sleep," he yelled, causing his son to stir a little but not quite wake up.

"Was it the one where we all died on a mission and you felt powerless to help us?" The way he woke up was the only thing that made her assumption reasonable. "Please just tell me so I can help you," she insisted; with her other hand she touched his shoulder.

"Yes," King Vegeta answered. It was half the truth because he didn't _feel_ powerless, he _knew_ he was powerless against Frieza if the tyrant were to attack his family. He certainly was not going to go into detail about the dream because of the questions he knew she would ask. Saying 'yes' to this question meant he didn't have to do much talking.

"Well just forget about it, okay? You know from experience that I'm a lot tougher than I look." She glanced down at their son. "And he's very strong, too. With enough training, he'll just get stronger." Tomalia looked back over to her husband. "And you're great at protecting us whenever we need. We both can always trust you. Just remember that." With that much said, she laid back down and stared at his back for awhile before she closed her eyes and dozed off. Tomalia knew that it had to be something more than what he let on, but she would wait until tomorrow to figure it out.

King Vegeta just let out a long sigh. He turned around to face both of them once more before falling asleep again to more unpleasant dreams.

They awoke early the next morning and went their separate ways to prepare for the day. Tomalia went with the Prince to make sure he didn't need help with anything. To her surprise, he'd become more independent since she had been gone. Since she was not needed for anything, she left and went back to her room to see if she could talk to her husband before he started his day. However, when she got back to the room she found that he was not there. After getting herself ready, she went to the kitchen to find him again. The King was absent, though Nappa said that he spoken to him about twenty minutes ago.

This morning so far only Tomalia, the Prince, Nappa, Zorn, and Brolina were present. Brolina was in charge of letting the people who worked in the castle know if they had any upcoming assignments. Brolina looked over her device and then glanced up at the three adults.

"My Queen, you should be getting another assignment in a little while now. I'll let you know when." She turned to face Nappa next. "Alright Nappa, no Missions as of now, so just keep on with your training." Finally she turned to Zorn. "And Zorn, you have an upcoming task in two days. Come and see me within that amount of time to get the necessary information about the assignment." Brolina finished speaking. She got up and left the room to continue her duties.

After Brolina left, Tomalia asked Nappa what he and the King had talked about. Not surprisingly, Nappa developed amnesia all of a sudden and couldn't tell her what they had said. Nappa then left the room saying that he had to go get Raditz for training, and told Vegeta to wait in the training grounds for him. Tomalia began figuring out how to approach the King to get him to tell her what he had told Nappa. She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard her son speak to her.

"Mother," Vegeta said to catch her attention.

"Yes, Vegeta?"

"When are you gonna get another assignment?"

"Brolina said anytime now. Why you want to know?"

"I want to go on the next one with you. I want to see how much my training pays off. Promise me that you'll take me with you on your next mission. Please? Please?" Vegeta begged and gave her a face that he knew she couldn't say no to.

"Okay, yes, you sure can." She saw how happy Vegeta became and then added: "but..."

"But?" he questioned.

"If I feel that the inhabitants on the assignment are too much for you, I'm not going to take you, okay? I care about your safety."

"Hmmm." Vegeta thought for a moment. "I can live with that, I guess."

"That's good, I'm glad that we have an understanding with each other. Now, you have a full day of training ahead. How about you go and get warmed up?"

"Yeah. I'll see you later," Vegeta said. As he left the kitchen, he waved.

"Prince Vegeta! You left your scouter," Zorn yelled after him, and held it up. Vegeta ran back in to retrieve it.

"Thanks, Zorn." Vegeta placed his scouter on the left side of his face.

"Prince Vegeta, I thought you preferred your scouter on the right side," Zorn asked.

"Oh yeah, I like it like that." Vegeta then changed the position of it. "Thanks again, Zorn. I'll see you later." With that, he left for the training grounds.

Tomalia let out a long sigh as Zorn sat down next to her.

"So how did everything go with the King? Did you find out what has him so stressed lately?"

"I haven't made any progress with him because some people won't share any information with me," she said, and looked over to Zorn.

"Tomalia, you know I would tell you if I could. In fact, I _want_ to tell you about what's going to happen. I can't, though." Zorn did not want to reveal too much of the situation. Then Tomalia looked at him and pleaded with her eyes, Zorn sighed again before he began. "I'm not going to tell you everything, Tomalia, but what I can tell you is that it does have something to do with the Prince. That's all I can say." Zorn stood and got ready to go. "I'll go keep an eye on the Prince until Nappa returns." And then he left.

Armed with this new bit of information, Tomalia spent the rest of the morning and well into the evening trying to put all the pieces together. Tomalia thought that she had everything figured, out and came up with a way to approach the King about it. She decided to see if Nappa would tell her anything new or if he still wouldn't talk. He was out in the training grounds monitoring Vegeta and Raditz meditating.

"I shouldn't be hearing no small talk or laughing. Just the sound of even breathing." Nappa yelled when he heard them discussing irrelevant things with each other.

"Yeah, Raditz. Don't you know when to stop running that mouth of yours?" Vegeta told him, still not taking the exercise seriously.

"Piss off, Vegeta! He was talking to you too," Raditz said, opened one eye and smirked at him. They were both chuckling until they felt Nappa tower over them, to which they both looked up.

"Well, since you both seem to not be taking your meditation seriously, you can split up and do push ups instead," Nappa told them.

"How many?" Raditz asked, clearly being sarcastic.

"Until I say 'stop,' that's how many. So we have no more chattering you go over there, and Prince Vegeta goes over there." Nappa pointed to the left and then to the right.

"I'm going to do more than you are, Raditz," Vegeta challenged while walking to his 'assigned' area.

"I bet you won't," Raditz replied, and did the same thing.

"This is not a competition, this is training. Now, Vegeta you are to do sit ups instead of push ups," Nappa said, and smiled when he heard the Prince groan. At that moment Tomalia came over to speak with Nappa. "Unless you want to explain to your Mother the reason why you're not taking this training session seriously." After Nappa said that, he noticed the boy immediately dropped down in position and started doing the sit-ups.

"This is my first and last time asking this question, Nappa. Do you know what Prince Vegeta has to do with the way the King has been acting?"

Nappa's only thought to the reason she mentioned the prince was 'Zorn'. Nappa felt that he would be the only one to say something about it because Zorn had a really close friendship with Tomalia. "The Prince has nothing to do with it, Queen Tomalia." Nappa responded.

"I thank you for your time Nappa," she said, and walked away.

Nappa was relived that she left after asking only one question. He then wondered how the Queen was able to gather such a big piece of information in such a short amount of time. He pushed those thoughts away when he noticed that Raditz and Vegeta had returned to their earlier spot and were having a casual conversation. Nappa sighed and went over to the two boys.

Later on that evening, Brolina informed the Queen that her squad had an upcoming assignment tomorrow morning. Tomalia did some research on the planet and found that it was safe enough to take Vegeta to while providing him with a challenge. Eager to share the news with her son, she headed to his room. When she told him the news, he sat up straight and became excited.

"Wow, really? Tomorrow morning? I can't wait," Vegeta said, laughing and jumping on his bed.

"Yes, 'really.' Now you need to rest up so you'll be ready." She grabbed the Prince in mid jump and tucked him under his covers.

"Yes ma'am, I just can't wait." He closed his eyes and smiled.

Tomalia kissed him on the cheek, got up, turned off the lights and left his room, closing the door behind her. Moments later, she returned to her own room to get ready and rest for the next day's mission. When she went in, she saw King once again laying down on the bed. Tomalia decided to act on her plan.

"I've got an assignment tomorrow," she started.

"Great. How much time do you have to complete it,' the King asked.

"Three days. Why do you ask?" She sat down on the bed beside him.

"No reason."

"I'm taking Vegeta. He's ready for another assignment and I promised him I would."

King Vegeta sat up and looked at her directly in her eyes. "He is not to leave the planet at all, do you understand?"

"No, I don't. At one point you were all eager for him to go on missions, and now all of a sudden he can't go? So maybe you can explain to me why can't he leave?" She yelled at him in frustration.

"He's allowed to go on missions, Tomalia, just not this one."

"Why not? Does this have something to do with Frieza? Does he not want him to go on assignments? And you fear him that much that you're going to follow what he says?" Tomalia interrogated Vegeta until he pinned her down to the bed and glared at her with a murderous look in his eyes.

"If I wake up and find out that you've disobeyed and took him off planet ..." He formed an energy beam at her chest. The feeling of terror built up, but she kept staring directly into his eyes. "... when you return, I'll end your life on the spot. Do you understand that?"

The King brought his hand even closer to her chest. Tomalia was too struck with fear to continue her questioning. At this moment she wanted nothing more then to be away from his presence, so she nodded her head in understanding.

"I need to hear you speak with your mouth," the King told her.

"I understand, okay! Now get off of me. Right now," she yelled.

He dissolved the energy beam he had been aiming towards her and stood up. Tomalia got off the bed and turned her back to him while she picked up her scouter and put it on. She informed her team that they were leaving for the mission in thirty minutes. Tomalia went to the closet, put on her battle armor and left the room without saying a word or turning to look back at her husband. The King just turned the light back off and went to sleep.

Tomalia was way beyond angered, but she had to go see her son, so she went to his room. As she stood beside the Prince's bedside, she contemplated just taking him despite the King's threat. She decided against it; she knew that when Vegeta said he would do something, he wouldn't change his mind afterward. Tomalia felt that she needed to talk with her son one more time otherwise she might not get the chance. Little did she know that she was right about her feelings. She shook him awake; he sat up and languidly opened his eyes.

"Mother?" He said in a drowsy voice. She pulled him into a hug and he wrapped his arms around her. Tomalia sat back and looked him in the eyes.

"Listen to me, Vegeta. You're a strong fighter and you've made us both very proud of you, okay? I want you to remember yourself, and I want you to know that you don't have to prove your strength to anyone. I want you to remember that I'm always a part of you. I love you." She kissed him on his forehead. Vegeta wasn't awake enough to know if it was all a dream or if it was really happening.

"I love you too, Mother," he said, then fell back down onto his pillow. Tomalia looked down at him one more time before leaving his room. She headed to the launching grounds to find that her squad was ready to go. They went inside their pods, entered the coordinates of the planet, and left.

The next morning Nappa noticed that Prince Vegeta didn't come to breakfast. Nappa thought that this was a rare day, and that he might have slept in this morning. After coming back with Raditz, they didn't find him on the training grounds either. After looking around for another half an hour, they found him on the launching grounds. He was sitting on the ground and looking up at the sky. Nappa and Raditz approached him.

"She left. Without me. She broke her promise. Why would she do that," he asked. He pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his tail around himself.

"Vegeta, sometimes plans change. She probably didn't have the time to tell you. It happens," Nappa told him, and put a hand on his right shoulder.

"Yeah Vegeta, both my parents have done that to me more than once," Raditz said, and put his hand on Vegeta's left shoulder. "It'll be okay, all right?" he added.

Vegeta nodded his head.

"Hey, you ready to some training? If we spar today, I think that I've got a good chance at besting you." Raditz tried to lighten the Prince's mood.

Vegeta just shook his head and stood up. "I'm not in the mood for sparring right now." He started to walk back inside.

"Vegeta. You know if you change your mind we'll be on the training grounds as usual," Nappa called to him.

"Yeah, I know." Vegeta responded. He looked back and smiled just a little bit. He turned back around and continued inside.

"Soo ... does this mean that you'll be my sparring partner today?" Raditz asked Nappa.

"Not that you have a chance against me," Nappa told him.

"We'll see about that." Raditz chuckled.

That evening, Vegeta went to seek comfort from his father. He knew that he couldn't bother the King throughout the day while he was busy, so he waited on his father's bed for him to get out the bathroom. King Vegeta came out and saw the Prince. He dressed and sat down next to Vegeta.

"Hey son you feeling fine," he asked, and his son shook his head 'no'. "You want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Mother left me, when she said she would take me on the mission with her. I feel that she lied to me," Vegeta said, on the verge of tears.

"She had to leave immediately because things had changed. Sometimes we can't control situations like that. You'll understand it better when you get older."

Vegeta valued what his father told him; he wiped his eyes and nodded his head in understanding. King Vegeta smiled and pulled him in close.

"Vegeta, I'm going to give the announcement about planet Tazba tomorrow. Want to come with me?" King Vegeta had to make sure that he was able to convince Vegeta to come along with him so the demand would be met.

"Yes," Vegeta said with delight as he hugged his father. The King pushed him away, then laid him down on the bed and pulled the covers over both of them. "Father, tell me about the Tuffle war again. I love it when you tell it."

"Okay, but no interruptions this time or I'll stop telling it," the King told him.

"My lips are sealed." Vegeta put a finger on his lips.

Vegeta looked around in complete amazement at the place he was in. It was an enormous building; all around there were PTO soldiers in groups conversing among themselves. In the front was the platform where the King would give his speech in a little bit. In the back area was where the man called Frieza sat, along with his henchmen. His Father had said Vegeta was going to meet him tonight, and it sent fear down the Prince's spine from what people had told him about Frieza:

 _"Well since you are going, make sure that you stay close to your father; especially if you're around Frieza." Brolina told him._

 _"Prince Vegeta, make sure that you stay on guard around Frieza, all right?" Zorn warned him._

 _"I don't really know the guy, Vegeta, but from what I hear everyone says he's strong. So make sure you watch your back around him." Raditz said._

"Come along Vegeta. You don't want to get caught up in the crowd," the King called. Then Vegeta ran over to his father and held onto his leg."What is it?"

"Father, everyone was saying that this Frieza guy is really strong. Promise that you'll protect me from him, okay?" Vegeta wanted his father's reassurance.

King Vegeta looked down at his son and saw his eyes looking directly into his. The plea made him feel guilty about the real reason that he had brought the boy to this place. He knew he had to give false hope, or else the Prince would be glued to him all evening. If that happened, he might as well kiss Vegetasai goodbye. "Of course I will son," he said and rubbed Vegeta's hair. "Hey, you know what? I think that you're strong enough to protect yourself. Just remember your training."

"Right!" Vegeta smiled and looked up at his father. They then made their way over to where Frieza sat. The King bowed to the tyrant and the Prince followed his father's actions.

"My Lord, I'm here to speak about Planet Tazba's occupation."

"Of course you are. Now, who's this mini replica of you that you've brought along," Frieza asked.

"Introduce yourself," The King said, then stood up and looked down at his son. Prince Vegeta also stood and looked directly into Frieza's eyes.

"I'm Prince Vegeta, Lord Frieza." Vegeta gave another bow.

"My, such good manners you have, Prince Vegeta. Now Vegeta, I believe you do have to give your speech about Tazba in under two minutes now. Why don't you go ahead and go up now while I stay here and get to know your son," Frieza said, and accepted that he met the demand.

"Of course, my lord." The King left to go to the front and speak. He saw his son standing tall, still looking at Frieza. _Yes, he's going to make a great warrior one day._

Up at the front of the room, the King started his speech. "Lord Frieza and Planet Trade Organization soldiers, tonight I come to speak about how my people took down the Tazbians and occupied their planet." He spoke with confidence as he recounted the Tazbians unanticipated resistance. He also described their strategies as they waited for the full moon to finish the job.

After giving his speech, the King returned to the castle. While leaving, he saw Frieza and the rest of the soldiers depart with his unconscious son. The King then went to see if Nappa was ready for his part of the plan.

"All right Nappa. Part one has been completed: the prince has been delivered to Frieza. Now I will go over this one more time, so listen."

"I'm ready, sir."

"I've already negotiated with Frieza to allow you to join my son, and he actually agreed. The next part is where you come in. Meet Frieza at his ship and board it. As soon as you're onboard, find my son and protect him with your life. Once I've prepared a rebellion against Frieza and his forces, we will overthrow his empire and you both will return home."

After a tough sparring session the previous day with Nappa and before going home, Raditz went to check up on Vegeta and see how he was holding up. He knocked a good three times before he heard Vegeta in a unusual quiet voice tell him to "come in". Opening the door to a dark room, he almost missed Vegeta lying down in his bed under the covers. When Raditz flipped on the switch, Vegeta hid his face.

"Turn it off, Raditz," Vegeta snapped at him.

"Fine. I'll turn it off, but I'm opening the blinds. It's depressing sitting in a dark room like this." Raditz did as he promised. Vegeta groaned irritably and turned to face away from the light. Raditz sat down beside him on the bed. "Hey Vegeta, how you holding up? You feeling any better?" Raditz asked with concern in his voice.

"I'm fine," Vegeta said with his back still turned towards Raditz.

"I don't believe you." Raditz held his head down. "You know that it's not the end of the world if people break a promise to you? It will get a lot worse when you grow older." Raditz put a hand on Vegeta's shoulder. "I can't say that I'll never break a promise to you but I will try to keep them."

Vegeta smiled and turned over to face him. "Raditz, what do you do when people don't keep their promises to you?"

"Usually I make plans to do things on my own, but that's what I do now. When I was your age though, I did what you're doing right now: cry about it and brood in a dark room." Being honest, Raditz continued on. "But I think that you should wait to talk to your mom. That's what helped me when I was smaller and it helps me now too, come to think about it."

Vegeta sat up in his bed. "I don't know if I can wait to talk to her, Rad." Vegeta then looked at him with a mischievous look in his eyes.

"What are you thinking about, Geta," Raditz asked skeptically.

"Well if you want to know… I need your assistance. Though you have to promise not tell anyone at all. Remember what you just said? Now promise."

"I promise."

"Here's what I'm thinking: we get Brolina's mission device and find a planet that's further down on the list. Then … bam … I've got a place that will provide me with a challenge. And then I can prove once and for all that I'm suitable for missions," Vegeta stated.

"Where do I come in? And look, Vegeta - I know you're really strong, but at your age you still need people to go with you. So if I do agree to help you, I'm coming along. No questions asked. Got it?" Raditz explained.

"Fine. You can come. You'll be used as a diversion to distract Brolina while I get the tablet, find a planet, and record the coordinates. It should be easy, considering you really like her." Vegeta nudged Raditz' elbow and raised his eyebrows up and down. "You in?"

Raditz groaned but agreed with him.

"Follow me." Vegeta jumped off the bed, opened the door and headed out of his room, and made a right turn.

Raditz followed him; Vegeta knew his way around the palace and Raditz did not wish to get lost in the maze of corridors. After for what seemed like an eternity, Vegeta partially opened a door and looked inside for a moment. Finding his target, he glanced at Raditz who looked back at him with confusion when Vegeta gave him a stare.

"What?" the older one asked.

"Distract her. Make her come out so I can sneak in," the younger one said, frustrated that he had to remind his friend.

Raditz took a deep breath and opened the door. Brolina looked up from her device to see him and she put on her best smile despite not really being in the mood at the moment to deal with the youth.

"Yes, Raditz. What can I help you with?" She placed her head in her hands.

"Um…Um…I…" Raditz began, but found that he could not say the words he wanted. _Vegeta would put me in a predicament like this. It's just like him,_ he thought.

"Are you feeling sick," she asked, stood up and walked towards him. "That's perfect."

"Yeah you know what, just a little." Raditz groaned and held his head for emphasis. "It's nothing really, but maybe … do you have something I could take to hold me off until Nappa takes me home?" he asked to move on with the plan before she became suspicious. "But if you're too busy -"

He started to turn around still holding his head, and grabbed the door frame to seem as if he would faint without holding on to something. As expected, she rushed over to his side and took his arm, then led him out the room. "I'll give you a little something, but not too much because I don't have your guardians' permission." Brolina failed to notice the youth was now slightly blushing.

Raditz didn't speak, he just nodded. As they headed down the hallway, Raditz looked back to see a red cape disappear into Brolina's room. Several minutes after taking medicine he needed for his 'headache' and getting something to drink it down with, Brolina returned to her other duties and Nappa came to get him.

"I'm going to make a quick stop to talk to Vegeta, I'll be right back." Raditz said. Without giving Nappa time to answer he ran off, and overheard Nappa say that 'they talk too much' aloud to himself.

As he neared Brolina's room he ran into Vegeta. "Did you find a planet or what?"

"Of course! I'll scouter you this afternoon with all the information later, so keep it close by," he responded. Raditz started to walk away before Vegeta spoke again. "Take it easy now. We don't want you getting any sicker, now do we?" He laughed and retreated into his room. Raditz sighed and went back to Nappa.

Later on that night as promised, Vegeta called him via scouter, too late for Raditz' liking. He had just fallen asleep when it started beeping. "Hello," he said drowsily.

"Did you fall asleep? You know what, never mind. Just listen."

 _That's the idea_ , Raditz said to himself, not feeling much like talking.

"So I modified the plan just a little because I'm going with my father for his speech. But anyway, I found two pods that will be _in use_ for tomorrow night. I'll tell you more tomorrow when you come over to train. We'll meet here after the speech is over, so I'll call you after that. I'm out. Go back to sleep."

"Wait a minute, how did you manage -" Raditz started to question before being cut off.

"I have my ways, Raditz. It's not that hard to get people to do things for you when their job could be gone if I have negative things to say about them."

"You didn't …"

"You'll never know."

Before Vegeta could go, Raditz asked: "Vegeta, what do I tell my parents?"

"Seriously? Leave it to me to think of everything. Ummm…don't tell 'em anything. Or if you actually want to, just say that you're going to be with me for a little while," Vegeta replied and disconnected the line.

The next day, Raditz stopped by the palace because he had not received a call from Vegeta, and he wanted to make sure the prince still wanted to go on his mission. However, he did not make it to Vegeta's room, because he overheard the King and Nappa discussing something about a 'plan'.

At this point, Raditz thought the adults had figured out that he and Vegeta had planned on leaving without permission, and so they were busted. He placed himself against the wall, then peered inside to find out what the two grown people were discussing. He heard them mention Prince Vegeta, but there was no sign of him anywhere in the room, which was strange. _If they figured out our plan why isn't Vegeta there talking with them?_ Raditz thought, but continued listening to them talk.

Raditz listened in horror as he heard the King say that Frieza had taken Vegeta, and that Nappa didn't seem surprised. He could barely keep quiet as he continued to listen. There had to be more to it than that. He almost burst into the room to protest when he heard the rest: to send Nappa after the Prince to keep him safe.

Leaving the scene, he sped walked to his friends room, going inside without knocking. As he looked around the room, where at this time he should hear his friend's soft snoring, all he could hear was silence. He went to Vegeta's bed; it was still made up neatly and untouched.

"He did do it." Raditz stared at the floor and let his tail drop down on the ground in sadness. "Vegeta," he said in a whisper as a lone tear began to fall. "Vegeta...I'm coming." Raditz clenched his fists together tightly, then wiped his face. "I'm going to protect you too, I promise." He wrapped his tail back around his waist and walked over to the window and looked outside. He saw Nappa speak with the King one more time, then take off to the sky. Raditz opened the window and took off behind him while keeping little distance from Nappa.

Nappa's scouter started to pick up on an energy signal. Someone had been following him for the past three minutes now. He slowed his speed and when his 'follower' was within his space, he came to a complete stop. Raditz collided with Nappa's back and started to descend towards the ground. He recovered from the impact, flew back up, and looked at Nappa who glared down at him.

"You better have an excuse for why you're out at this time of night. At your age, you should be aware of your curfew." Nappa crossed his arms.

"So you were just going to leave and not tell me anything," Raditz asked, and balled up his fist.

"I don't owe you an explanation about anything, kid. Fly home now." Nappa turned his back to the youth. He was about to fly away when Raditz spoke up.

"No ... I'm going, Nappa. Vegeta is _my_ Prince too. I want to protect him, he's my friend." Raditz flew to Nappa with a look of determination in his eyes.

"No Raditz, I won't allow it. This is a job for adults, not a child. Go home now." Nappa pointed his finger towards the area where Raditz' home was located.

Raditz ignored the gesture. "Protecting the Prince is everyone's job, Nappa. Not just yours. The King might have entrusted you with it, but even you know that you can't do it alone. Everyone on this planet says that Frieza is more powerful than all of us. So think about it: if you were to die then Vegeta would be alone anyways. If there are two of us … then if one of us dies there will still be someone there to protect him, and I want to be that someone. I am _going_ to be that someone," Raditz finished. He put his fist on his chest and looked up at Nappa with hope.

Nappa still wanted to tell him 'no', but thinking about the Prince's well being and having wasted too much time already, he gave in. "Fine Raditz, but only because I know you'll keep following me if I don't let you. Remember, you're coming to protect the Prince."

"Thank you very much, Nappa!"

"Let's go." Nappa placed a hand on Raditz' shoulder, then turned and started to lead the way.

"Alright, Nappa" Raditz said eagerly.

Raditz followed Nappa and began to think about the life that he was about to leave behind. _Mother, Father, Kakkorat... I know that you're going to miss me while I'm gone. I'm going to miss you too. Please don't worry about me too much because I'll return one day and be with all of you once again. I'm sorry that I didn't get the chance to tell you goodbye to your faces, but once you find out the reason I left, you all will be very proud of me._ When he finished, he noticed that Nappa was watching him.

"What?" Raditz questioned.

"You're crying. What were you thinking about?" Nappa pointed at Raditz' face.

Raditz sniffled and wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm just happy that I'll be able to be with Vegeta, that's all," he half lied.

"Oh ... well we're here now. Just let me do all the talking, kid." They both landed in front of Frieza's ship. Nappa patted Raditz's hair.

The next afternoon, Tomalia and her squad returned. Tomalia's pod didn't even make it on the ground before she opened the hatch and jumped out. She had to see if the feeling in her heart was right. _Please let him be here_. She opened his door and found that he was not there. _Maybe he's eating or training,_ she told herself.

She looked in the kitchen, and then the training ground. He was not there either. Tomalia asked everyone in the castle, and none of them had seen the Prince all day. Then she went to find the one person that she did not wish to see just yet. She found him on the balcony looking out at his kingdom.

"Where is he? Where's my son," she asked sternly.

King Vegeta continued staring into the distance as he ignored her.

"I want you to tell me what you did. Just admit it to me. I want to hear it from your own mouth."

Still, the King did not respond. Tomalia was infuriated at him for ignoring her, so she decided to get his attention by shooting a ki ball at his head. In response, Vegeta raised one hand and deflected the blast. Without giving him any warning, she came at him and threw punches aimed at his face. King Vegeta had trouble dodging her fury swipes, but he did not strike out in return.

Anyone who knew Tomalia and how she reacted when enraged would be wise enough to let her to tire out, so the King deflected her attacks with minimal force and allowed her to vent her rage. After an hour or so, the Queen's strikes slowed, then stopped. She fell onto her hands and knees and sobbed.

The King held out one hand to help his wife up. Tomalia hesitantly grabbed hold, and he pulled her up towards him. She buried her face into the crook of his neck and just let her tears fall. King Vegeta held her close to him. When the sobbing had for the most part stopped, he pulled her away and looked into her eyes. They both stared at each for a long time, not saying a word. Tomalia was the first to break the silence.

"Just tell me already, Vegeta. I want you to."

"I had no choice. It was either him or the rest of the planet. I knew it wouldn't make a difference if I disagreed with Frieza."

"Do you regret your decision?"

"No, I don't."

"What? That's my son. You can't just hand him over to some tyrant, and at his age! Who knows what will happen to him?" Tomalia pushed Vegeta away and screamed at him.

"He is my son too, Tomalia. You don't think that if there was any other way I wouldn't have taken it?" He raised his tone to match hers. "Our son will be the one to liberate us all from Frieza's reign."

"So you're telling me that you're depending on a child, _our_ child, to free our planet while he's under Frieza's command? What kind of sense does that make," she asked in disbelief.

"He's under the right guidance and protection, Tomalia. I sent Nappa along with him to be sure he'll be safe until I come for him. I promise you I will get him back. I want you to know that I don't depend on him to save us all." Vegeta walked to her and pulled her in to a loving embrace. Tomalia returned it.

"You better get him back," she told him, and finally let the tears fall down her face.

"I will. Even if it costs my life," he promised.

And he did not know how true his words were.


End file.
